I’m writing to say goodbye to a man most readers of The Westside Express never knew. Cal Tatum, who edited some of the stories published in this newspaper, died last week in Arizona.
We were never close friends, but he was more than a mere acquaintance of mine for more than 30 years. Cal said he had held many jobs – at one time as a worker at a nuclear power plant in Texas, at another as a safety compliance officer for an oil company in Alaska – but his working life focused on writing and editing for newspapers and magazines.
Among other things he wrote sports stories for a newspaper in Ahwatukee, Arizona; stories about subjects concerning dairy farmers for a trade publication; and stories about bass fishing for fishing magazines. He loved fishing and was good at it. But it was during the time he was editor of the Hilmar Times and Delhi Express newspapers that our paths first crossed.
Editors of small weekly newspapers do more than just edit. As a rule, they also write most of the stories, take most of the photos and layout the pages to be printed. It’s a 60 hour-a-week job in a good week. Cal’s publisher gave him a small budget to hire a freelance writer to help carry the load. I applied for the job and Cal said to me, “Write me a story.”
I wrote 400 words about the annual Easter egg hunt in Stevinson. Cal edited the story and put it on the front page of the Hilmar Times under my byline. That act launched a 25-year career in journalism.
Long after my retirement, I agreed to help Gene Lieb with a special section he was publishing in The Westside Express by writing one of the articles he needed. Cal was editing sports stories for TWE at the time, so I sent my story to him to edit. I explained that I intended for the story I had sent him to be the last one I would write under my byline and since he had edited the first one some 30-plus years before, he should edit the last.
And he did.
Thank you, Cal. Local journalism will miss you. I’ll miss you, too.
Kim Yancey
Stevinson
